The purpose of this data collection was to investigate the
effects of changes in police evidence procedures and the effects of
providing feedback to officers on felony case charge reductions or
dismissals due to evidentiary problems. The data were designed to
permit an experimental assessment of the effectiveness of two police
evidence collection programs implemented on April 1, 1985. One of these
was an investigative and post-arrest procedural guide. The other was an
individualize... (more info)

The purpose of this data collection was to investigate the
effects of changes in police evidence procedures and the effects of
providing feedback to officers on felony case charge reductions or
dismissals due to evidentiary problems. The data were designed to
permit an experimental assessment of the effectiveness of two police
evidence collection programs implemented on April 1, 1985. One of these
was an investigative and post-arrest procedural guide. The other was an
individualized feedback report prepared by prosecutors for police
officers. The officer file includes information on each officer's sex
and race, length of police service, and assignment changes during the
study period. Data on the offender and the case files include time of
arrest, information on arresting officer, original investigating
officer and principal investigating officer, offense and victim
characteristics, arrestee characteristics, available evidence, case
processing information, and arrestee's criminal history.

Scope of Study

Universe:
All police officers in the Baltimore County Police
Department and all felonies committed between April 1, 1984 and
November 30, 1985 in Baltimore County.

Data Types:
event/transaction data

Data Collection Notes:

For reasons of confidentiality police officer badge
numbers were replaced with unique identifiers in each of the files.
Data on the individualized feedback report should not be used for
purposes of analysis due to problems in implementing this portion of
the study.

Methodology

Sample:
The sample for the officer file consisted of all police
officers on patrol in four shifts in the Western and Eastern Divisions
of the Baltimore County Police Department during the period April 1,
1984 through November 30, 1985. The target population was all felony
cases (except homicide, rape/other sex offenses, and child abuse) from
police and prosecutor records for the time period April 1, 1984 through
November 30, 1984 and April 1, 1985 through November 30, 1985.

Data Source:

official police department and State Attorney General
records

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release:1990-03-02

Version History:

2006-01-18 File CB9290.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.